On the anniversary of Hu Yaobang's death, thousands of Chinese quietly remembered the party leader who many thought was pushing for further political reform in the 1980s before the Tiananmen crackdown.

The 24th commemoration on Monday is the first under President Xi Jinping, whose father worked under Hu Yaobang.

Egypt’s armed forces deployed troops in the city of Suez early on Saturday after nine people were shot dead during nationwide protests against President Mohamed Mursi, underlining the country’s deep divisions as it marked the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

A former China Railway Container Transport chairman went on trial for corruption yesterday at a court in Qiqihar , Heilongjiang . Luo Jinbao, 56, was said to have introduced ousted railways minister Liu Zhijun to Ding Shumiao - believed to have found Liu numerous young women for sex - and made 800 million yuan (HK$983 million) from rail projects. Prosecutors accused Luo of taking 47 million yuan in bribes, as well as illegally owning a shotgun.

Exactly eight years ago as I write this I received an urgent call from a friend on holiday in Thailand. At that time, I was sleeping off the effects of the previous day. It is quiet at this time of the year in South Africa, when the country goes into deep aestivation, from the public holiday a week before Christmas until the first working day after New Year's Day.

Dozens of mourners gathered in a small alleyway just off Beijing's premier shopping street, Wangfujing, yesterday to pay tribute to late Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang on the 93rd anniversary of his birth.